Tag Archive: Lake Como

Alison Negrin’s career as a chef spans 30 years. She lived in Scandinavia and travelled throughout Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, Mexico, Peru and North America. Exploration of her Jewish Mediterranean roots brought a labyrinth of flavors and cultural understanding to her cuisine repertoire.

Her professional training from the SF Culinary Academy and Bauman College in holistic nutrition helped her advancement to Executive Chef at some of the San Francisco Bay Area top restaurants, such as: Chez Panisse, Mesa, Ginger Island, Poulet and Bridges. Her years of experience as both chef and culinary instructor makes her an excellent teacher. Alison loves sharing her knowledge and passion for seasonal cuisine and all things natural.

Alison and Abroad Writer’s Conference founder, Nancy Gerbault, first met at UC Berkeley in the 70’s when they were both art students. Nancy was the painter and Alison a sculptor. As young women they spent many hours over steaming cups of cappuccino at Cafe Mediterranean on Telegraph Avenue, sharing their ideas and dreams for the future.

It was Nancy, whom Alison credits as her first forays into the seductive pleasures of cooking Indian and French food, fresh herbs, eggplant and ratatouille. Nancy was a fabulously creative cook. Sometimes dinner would start at 9 pm and last until midnight. Alison couldn’t get enough and she came back for more and more. Nancy was also an International Flight Attendant for TWA and she shared her worldly travels with Alison, who was an open appreciative student. She was hungry for adventure, sensual flavors and wisdom.

Fast forward 40 years. Now, these two best friends have a chance to fulfill their dreams of traveling together and preparing fabulous dinners for Abroad Writers’ Conference authors and participants.

Experience Alison’s food, stemming from her original interest in sculpture, love of process and truth to the materials transformed in the kitchen. Alison, Alex Forsythe and Nancy will bring their culinary wizardry and zest for adventure to the table every night.

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“In our workshop we will gladly ponder whatever kind of prose you write, from the most photorealistic fiction to unlineated poetry, from the most heavily plotted story to stream-of-consciousness lyric. We will allow each piece its own terms and judge its effectiveness at embodying them, rather than any we might impose upon it from the outside. We will consider genre as a description applied subsequently to the composition of a piece of writing, not a received premise that might constrain it in its making.” Paul Harding